Environmental Protection Agency

In the Michigan v. EPA case, the high court by a 5-to-4 vote reversed the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by finding that the EPA was unreasonable when it said that cost was irrelevant. The case involved the regulation of power plants.

There is little question that the President’s Climate Action Plan proposes innovative, far-reaching and controversial measures, and it is not clear that the quantifiable benefits of the regulations would justify the unprecedented costs.

If the experience at Chemetco shows anything, the EPA will seek to impose cleanup liability on recyclers, otherwise handling proper materials as part of an exempt transaction, based solely on the sins of the operator of the site.

On August 21, in in EME Homer City Generation, L.P. v. Environmental Protection Agency, the D.C. Circuit vacated the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Transport Rules governing air pollution emissions, which travel across state boundaries.